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Behind The Magic Of Guild Wars 2 Inside The ArenaNet Development Studio

BELLEVUE, Washington – PC gamers were able to get their first true taste of NCsoft’s upcoming massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Guild Wars 2 during a recent weekend public beta. The developer, ArenaNet, has been toiling away at this brand new take at online RPGs in Bellevue over the past five years. About a year ago, the growing studio moved into plush new digs, which you can see up close and personal courtesy of marketing guru Chris Lye in the exclusive video studio tour below.

The next best way to experience the new game – next to actually playing it – is to see the game in action. The below videos will take you on a magical journey through Bellevue and into the world of Tyria. With the success of its first MMO, Guild Wars, ArenaNet set out to make something even grander in scale. In essence, they wanted to make the type of MMO RPG that they, as PC gamers, always wanted to play. The key to any successful MMO is an intriguing story. Jeff Grubb, the master of mythology and lore for Guild War’s world, Tyria, takes us into this massive universe in the video walkthrough below.

Mike O’Brien, co-founder of ArenaNet and executive producer of Guild Wars 2, knows a lot about building successful online worlds. Before launching ArenaNet, O’Brien worked at Blizzard Entertainment on Battle.net, Diablo, StarCraft II and WarCraft. He moved north to Washington to create what he hopes is an MMO experience that better replicates the fun and excitement of standalone RPGs like Bethesda Softworks’ Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but with the added benefit of many players engaging in combat together as teams. He discusses the new game in the video below.

One of the many things that differentiates Guild Wars 2 from other MMOs is its world vs. world gameplay experience, which is completely separate from the campaign-based quests that players can explore. This engaging new experience allows three massive armies to engage in combat in huge maps, while building up new weapons to attack and defend strongholds. Each war will span two full weeks. Matt Witter, PvP Systems Designer at ArenaNet, breaks down the experience in the video below.

Of course, there is a very rich campaign mode that allows for complete customization of a character from very unique races. This game thrives on depth when it comes to creating characters and then embarking on branching storylines. Eric Flannum, lead game designer at ArenaNet, breaks down the five races – Human, Sylvari, Charr, Norn, and Asura – in the video below.

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While I’m going to play GW2 and I like it a lot, I have to say that the stories are very bland and the branches quite frankly don’t really go into much detail. Many branches involve a choice that will change the next 1-2 quests, but msot of them effect just dialog.

So happy that I pre-purchased this game and was able to get in on the first open beta weekend. It was just a joy to play. Are ArenaNet reinventing the wheel? No. But what they are doing is shaking up the genre by getting rid of the tired/boring conventions that often plague the ‘me-too’ MMO’s out on the market. Getting rid of the Holy Trinity, (Tank-Healer-DPS), Dynamic Event questing, balanced PvP right at level 1. Heck, being able to send and receive in game mail without having to go to a town or inn. They’re getting all the big and little things right. My friends and I have started so many sentences with, “The best thing about Guild Wars 2 is….” since the beta and I can’t WAIT to get back in.